Job 37:6 - Meaning and Application

The changing weather, wet or dry, hot or cold, is a common topic in our talk and daily life. Yet how rarely do we think and speak of it as Elihu does here, with a deep awe for God, who directs it all and shows his power through it. We should notice God’s glory not only in thunder and lightning, but also in the ordinary changes of the weather, which are less frightening and less noisy.

In snow and rain, as in Job 37:6, we see God at work. Thunder and lightning usually come in summer, but Elihu points to winter weather here. God says to the snow, “Be on the earth,” meaning he sends it, orders it, and sets where it will fall and how long it will stay. He speaks, and it happens. As in creation he said, “Let there be light,” so in ordinary providence, he says, “Snow, be on the earth.” With God, speaking and doing are not separate things, though they are with us.

When he speaks, the light rain falls, and the heavy rain pours down as he chooses. The Septuagint calls this the winter rain, for in those lands, when winter passed, the rain was over and gone (Sol 2:11). The Hebrew draws a distinction between the light rain and the heavy rain, but both are showers of his power. God’s strength is seen as much in a small rain that soaks into the ground as in a heavy rain that beats on the roof and washes everything away.

God’s rule should be noticed by farmers in the fields and travelers on the road, in every shower, whether it helps them or harms them. It is sin and foolishness to argue with God’s providence in the weather. If he sends snow or rain, can we stop it, or should we be angry at it? It is just as foolish to quarrel with any other part of his care over us and ours.

Extreme winter weather drives both people and animals indoors. Men stop their field work and stay inside, as Job 37:7 says, “He seals up the hand of every man.” In frost and snow, farmers cannot do their work, some trades cannot continue, and travelers cannot safely go on. The plow is put away, ships are laid up, and ordinary labor stops, so people may think about God’s works instead. When his hand shuts down our work, we should use that time for godliness, prayer, and praise. The less we have to do in the world, the more we should turn to our Bibles and our knees.

The beasts also go to their dens and stay in their places, as Job 37:8 says. This is especially true of wild beasts, which must look for shelter by instinct, while tame animals are housed and cared for by man, as in Exo 9:20. The donkey has no den except his master’s crib, and he goes there for safety, warmth, and food. If all creatures know enough to hide from a storm, shall man alone be left without shelter?

Elihu then speaks of the winds, which come from different directions and produce different effects, as in Job 37:9. The phrase may mean that the whirlwind comes from a hidden place, since it turns so that its source is hard to tell. It comes, as the word suggests, from a secret chamber. Some have taken this as the south wind, but that is less likely here, since Job 37:17 shows that the south wind is warm and calm, not violent. Elihu may have been seeing a whirlwind cloud coming toward them from the south, which would soon be the setting for the Lord’s own speech (Job 38:1). Or he may be saying that stormy winds come from one place and colder, drying winds from another, each serving God’s purpose.

He then speaks of frost, in Job 37:10. Its cause is the breath of God, meaning the word of his power and the command of his will. Some understand this as the wind itself, since wind is called God’s breath, just as thunder is his voice. Its effect is that the waters are narrowed and frozen, so what had spread freely is held tight, as if bound in crystal chains. This is such a display of God’s power that, if it did not happen so often, we would call it almost a miracle.

Elihu next turns to the clouds, the place where these water-bearing signs are formed, as he had already said in Job 36:28. He speaks of three kinds of clouds. First are the dark, thick clouds filled with rain, and these “wear themselves out” by watering the earth, as in Job 37:11. That is, they pour out so much rain that they seem spent and exhausted. See how the creatures above us labor to serve man, even at cost to themselves. The clouds water the earth until they are worn out, and this shames us when we do little good where we are. It should also remind us that “whoever waters others will himself be watered” in return.

Second are the bright, thin clouds, clouds without water, and God scatters them. They break apart and disappear without becoming rain, and we do not know where they go. The bright cloud in the evening, when the sky turns red, is a sign of fair weather, as Jesus later notes (Mat 16:2). Third are the moving clouds, which do not break into a steady rain but are carried by the wind from place to place, dropping showers as they travel. These, too, are turned by his wisdom, as in Job 37:12.

Ordinary people may say that rain is ruled by the planets, but that is as bad in religion as it is in thinking. Rain is guided by the wise counsel of God, even in things that seem random and small, so that they do whatever he commands. The stormy winds, and the clouds driven by them, fulfill his word. In this way he sends rain on one city and not on another, as in Amo 4:7 and Amo 4:8. So his will is done on the face of the earth, among the children of men, whom he has made to live there, as Act 17:26 says.

The lower creatures cannot choose right or wrong, so they cannot be rewarded or punished in a moral sense. But among human beings, God sends rain either to correct the land or to show mercy to it (Job 37:13).

Sometimes rain becomes a judgment. It is a rod of discipline for a sinful land. As the flood once destroyed the whole world, so heavy rain can now serve to correct a region by keeping people from sowing and reaping, raising floodwaters, and damaging crops. Some have even said that our own land has suffered more from too much rain than from too little.

At other times, rain is a blessing. God sends it for his land so that it may grow fruitful. And beyond what is strictly needed, he gives more as an act of mercy, to enrich the soil and make it more productive. This shows how deeply we depend on God. The very same thing, depending on how much of it he gives, can be either a great judgment or a great mercy. Without God, we cannot have either a shower or a clear sky.